Lord Beecham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2016-06-29.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have plans to reduce the level of uncollected tax, and if so, to what extent, and within what timescale.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) published its latest tax gap estimates on 22 October 2015 in Measuring tax gaps; 2015 edition. The overall long term trend is a reducing tax gap, from 8.4 per cent in 2005-06 to 6.4% in 2013-14. The UK’s percentage tax gap is one of the lowest in the world.

This overall long term trend demonstrates that our approach is delivering steady and sustained progress. As set out in their Single Departmental Plan, HMRC will raise an additional £5 billion a year by 2019-20 by tackling tax avoidance and aggressive tax planning, evasion and non-compliance, and by addressing imbalances in the tax system.